Skip to main content

Science of Persuation: How to persuade others?

According to wikipedia.org, Persuasion is:
Persuasion is an umbrella term of influence. Persuasion can attempt to influence a person's beliefs, attitudes, intentions, motivations, or behaviors.
In other words, persuasion is a process aimed at changing a person's (or a group's) attitude or behaviour

toward some event, idea, object, or another person(s). Knowing some of the persuasion techniques can be very helpful for a person as this techniques can help that person to excel in life (and/or his respective field like business, study, and even relationships).

So let's begin by asking these three questions and then I will tell you about Robert Cialdini's 6 principles of persuasion. So the questions are:
  1. Should one use counter-arguments while persuading?
  2. Should you take the central route (or peripheral route) to persuasion?
  3. Should you scare the receiver of the persuasion?
Answering these questions, counter-arguments can be helpful at times when the counter arguments are salient and when the receiver is highly intelligent or opposed to your position. In these cases, it will be good if you provide a two-sided appeal.

Second question, Central route includes facts, statics, and arguments while Peripheral route idle conditions like music, background, environment etc. Use central route when the receiver is actively involved otherwise use the peripheral route.

Last questions, YES!! it can be helpful if you scare the receiver of the persuasion as long as you provide a solution by which he can avoid the fearful situation.

Now let's discuss the Cialdini's 6 principles of persuasion. The 6 principles of persuasion are:

1. Reciprocity

Simply put, people are obliged to give back to others the form of behaviour, gift, or service that they have received first.

2. Scarcity

People want more of that thing which are scarce (available less).

3. Authority

This is the idea that people follow the lead of credible, knowledgeable experts.

4. Consistency

People like to be consistent with the things they have previously said or done.

5. Liking 

People prefer to say yes to those that they like.

6. Consensus

Especially when they are uncertain, people will look at the actions and behaviours of others to determine their own. 

I have not discussed this principle in details. Maybe in some other post, I will discuss these in more details. So there we have it. Six scientifically validated Principles of Persuasion that provide for small practical often costless changes that can lead to big differences in your ability to influence and persuade others in an entirely ethical way.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Social Influence: Some tips and tricks

In our previous posts, we have learnt about some of the techniques in Social Psychology. Now in this post I want to tell you about some techniques that you can use in real life to influence people or to protect yourself from being influence by other people and make rash decisions. Some of the tips are: People more likely to help you when you ask them to imagine or predict doing something. Telling some stranger your name first can also be helpful when asking a favour. One can say “Hello, I am ___ and I was wondering whether you do me a favour.” Talking with people is more helpful that talking at people when asking for something/favour. Engaging people in dialogues rather than a monologue. Now I would like to tell you about the most commonly used persuasion techniques. These techniques are: 1.       Foot-in-the-door technique 2.       Door-in-the-face technique 3.       Low-ball technique N...
Post a Comment
Read more

Abilene paradox: Group think

According to Wikipedia: In the Abilene paradox, a group of people collectively decide on a course of action that is counter to the preferences of many or all of the individuals in the group. In simple words, Abilene paradox is when each member of a group is a against the popular choice of the group and mistakenly believe that opposing it will cause a problem. It is a major problem in a big organization as well as in real life. The term was introduced by management expert Jerry B. Harvey in his 1974 article "The Abilene Paradox: The Management of Agreement". It was named like this because one day he and his family were sitting outside playing and having fun. His father-in-law jokingly suggested taking a trip to Abilene which was 44 miles away for supper. They all agreed because everyone thought other person wanted to go. But it turns out that it was an awful trip and a waste of a perfect Sunday. So, whenever such situations occur he is always reminded of that trip to Abil...
Post a Comment
Read more

Obedience to Authority.. Milgram experiment

Obedience is a form of social influence where an individual acts in response to a direct order from another individual, who is usually an authority figure. It is assumed that without such an order the person would not have acted in this way. But this obedience can be harmful in some situations. The most famous example of this can be the Holocaust in Nazi Germany. Do we believe that all of the people in Nazi Germany wanted to kill those six million European Jew? No, but they were bound and ordered by the authorities to do so. This obedience to authority figures is in our nature. This can happen to all of us.  In one of the famous experiment, the nurses were told by the doctor to give a certain medicine to the patients which the nurses didn't know about. Out of 22 nurses which participated 21 gave those medicines to the patients. Now let's talk about the Milgram experiment. It was a series of social psychology experiments conducted by Yale University psychologist Stanl...
Post a Comment
Read more